Elinor Rufeizen

Elinor Rufeizen

Elinor Rufeizen is an Israeli conductor and clarinetist, graduated from The Juilliard School with a master’s degree in orchestral conducting studying with mentors Alan Gilbert and David Robertson. She made appearances at Alice Tully Hall, Kaufman Music Center, Peter Jay Sharp Theatre, Severance Hall, Cité de la Musique and Yellow Barn Chamber Music Festival.
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She is a recipient of the Bruno Walter Memorial Scholarship, Charles Schiff Conducting Award for Outstanding Achievement, Morse Teaching Fellowship award and scholarships given by the American-Israel Cultural Foundation.
She worked with musicians such as Emanuel Ax, Daniil Trifonov, Susan Graham, members of the Ébène, Kronos, Juilliard and Cleveland Quartets, and collaborated with living composers Jörg Widmann, Shulamit Ran, Steven Stucky, Steven Mackey, Philippe Hersant and Andrew Norman.
Season 2021-22 includes her residence as a conducting fellow with the Dallas Opera, her conducting debut with the Bridgeport Symphony Orchestra and Stadttheater Giessen and she will be a cover conductor for National Symphony Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony and Orlando Philharmonic.
Elinor was recently a finalist for RNCM Mills William Junior Fellowship, finalist of Orchestre National de Lyon assistant conductor position and a finalist of Stadttheater Darmstadt and Gießen Erste Kapellmeister. She was chosen a semi-finalist at the Siemens-Hallé International Conductors Competition 2020 and finalist of St. Louis and Dallas Symphonies assistant conductor positions.
Elinor worked as an assistant conductor for John Adams, Barbara Hannigan, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, Xian Zhang and Marin Alsop. She had masterclasses with Gianandrea Noseda, Matthias Pintscher, Louis Langrée and David Zinman, and was invited to participate at the Tanglewood Music Festival in 2018.
As a clarinetist, she has a Bachelor’s degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, being mentored by Franklin Cohen, former principal clarinetist of the Cleveland Orchestra. She won the CIM (Cleveland Institute of Music) Concerto Competition on her freshman year and was invited to study at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris with Philipe Berrod, principal clarinetist of Orchestre de Paris. She continued her conducting training at the Buchman-Mehta Music Academy in Tel-Aviv, Israel.